Trump Has Lost The Culture
And his greediest collaborators are awakening to the fact that they made a terrible bet.
Democrats were slow to mount opposition to Donald Trump, because they got it in their heads that his popular vote plurality was tantamount to a lasting public verdict on MAGA cultural politics.
All Trump had to do was yoke his abuses of power to an issue Democrats viewed as settled in his favor (crime, or immigration, or “woke”) and they would not put up a fight.
The flip side of this self-fulfilling dynamic is that Trump’s loyalists, and the greedy men who hoped to profit from his corruption of the American state convinced themselves of the same thing: that a brutish style of politics, reflected in a coarsening culture, had “won,” and thus represented safe ground for everyone from right-wing influencers to executives of multinational corporations.
On Monday, for reasons unclear, the White House issued a press release with a header that read, “Don’t Be a Panican. We’re Winning—and We’re Not Slowing Down.” A sure sign that everything’s going well!
In any case, “Panican” is Trump’s clumsy portmanteau for Panicking Republican. It’s actually hard to say what setback or embarrassment inspired this unprompted plea to members of his party. What shouldn’t they panic about? Maybe it had to do with this latest huge Democratic victory in Republican territory; maybe with the unflattering contrast between the Super Bowl’s successful celebration of multiculturalism and the sad, curdled Republican counter-programming.
In either case, the White House is right to sense that “Panicans” are everywhere. His collaborators are beginning to realize that they succumbed to irrational exuberance and made a huge bet on a lame horse.
A PAUL IS CAST
The orchestrated right-wing freakout over Bad Bunny headlining the Super Bowl half-time show provides the most amusing encapsulation.
Democrats did not select the Super Bowl half-time headliner. But Republicans sensed they could win a culture war against the left anyhow, on the grounds that Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican and performs in Spanish. That’s it. That was the entire thrust of their manufactured grievance. The problem is they decided to politicize the half-time show from the moment it was announced in September, when they still felt some wind at their backs.
Fast forward to today—after months of civil unrest, and the public executions of two American citizens—and the politics have flipped. People are chanting “Fuck ICE” at professional wrestling events. Republicans mounted an alternative half-time show through the right-wing outfit Turning Points USA, featuring washed up artists whose idea of moral suasion is to sing about kicking the down-and-out little guy.
And it was a flop.
It was a flop at least insofar as Republicans hoped to demonstrate that they are the ones with their fingers on the pulse of the culture. They miscalculated badly. But the most interesting part of the flop was watching Trump boosters recognize in real time that they’d chosen the uncool side.
Jake Paul, the MAGA exhibition boxer and YouTube personality, began the evening by trying to lead a boycott of the Bad Bunny show.
“Purposefully turning off the halftime show,” he wrote. “Let’s rally together and show big corporations they can’t just do whatever they want without consequences (which equals viewership for them) You are their benefit. Realize you have power. Turn off this halftime. A fake American citizen performing who publicly hates America. I cannot support that.”
This went over poorly for several reasons: Puerto Ricans are Americans, Jake Paul moved to Puerto Rico to avoid paying taxes, people who sing in Spanish or who dislike Donald Trump don’t by definition hate America. Paul thus tried to revise and extend: “The problem with my tweet is the word fake being misinterpreted,” Paul explained, “he's not a fake citizen obviously bc hes Puerto Rican and I love Puerto Rico and all Americans who support the country. Moreso Bunny is fake bc of his values and criticism of our great country”
And then again: “To clarify: I wasn’t calling anyone a ‘fake citizen’ because they’re from Puerto Rico. I live in Puerto Rico, and I love Puerto Rico. I have used my platform to support Puerto Rico time and time again and will always do so. But if you’re publicly criticizing ICE who are doing their job and openly hating on America, I’m going to speak on it. Period.”
Then finally, the full retreat: “Guys i love bad bunny idk what happened on my twitter last night ?? wtf.”
ESO BEZOS
This awakening is happening in some form or another across the spectrum of elites and internet celebrities and cryptoscammers and tech barons who made the same bet Paul did.
Jeff Bezos has arguably tempted pariah status more than anyone. Unlike Elon Musk, Bezos was never known to harbor the racist grievances that endear Musk to the global population of neo-Nazis, and make him and Trump kindred spirits. Bezos’s ambition just a few years ago was to use the Washington Post to build himself a statesman’s legacy, and place himself at the center of the Washington social scene.
But at some point before the 2024 election, Bezos wagered that his best move would be to make unilateral concessions to Trump, at least as a hedge against him winning the election. Maybe he became radicalized by social media or divorce; maybe he just reasoned that Kamala Harris wouldn’t seek revenge against him, while Trump would. Whatever the case, he intervened at the last minute to bury the Post’s Harris endorsement, then continued paying tribute in order to benefit from Trump’s corrupt largesse. This culminated in what at least appears to be a quid pro quo arrangement, wherein Bezos sabotages his own legacy project in exchange for government contracts worth billions of dollars.
He’s held up his end of that apparent bargain. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth all but promised he’d be rewarded handsomely for it. “Blue Origin is going to do plenty of winning,” he said as the Post prepared to lay off half of its newsroom. But setting all morality aside, was this even a good bet? Bezos would likely be worth significantly more money at this point if Harris had won the election. Which means he’s lost both social standing and money, all while timing his bets about as poorly as possible. The Bezos-funded, money-losing Melania Trump propaganda film premiered as Trump was justifying the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Bezos fired hundreds of reporters just as Trump posted a video to his social media website depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
Masterful maneuvering, Mister Bezos!
Almost as masterful as the maneuvering of Paul Karp, the ousted chairman of the white shoe law firm Paul Weiss. Karp made the fateful decision a year ago to capitulate to Trump’s threats, imperiling his firm’s long-run reputation, only to lose his leadership position when his long history of correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein became public.
Apple CEO Tim Cook played it much safer, but still seems to recognize he got too close. He didn’t let the Pretti murder stop him from attending the White House screening of Melania, but that decision apparently generated enough anger within his company that he felt compelled to issue a statement of implicit regret, as if to quell a revolt.
Unlike Jake Paul, Cook made a point of aligning himself Sunday with Bad Bunny, rather than the cultural deadweight of Trump, Kid Rock, and TPUSA. He sees the weathervane turning.
TURNING POINT, USA!
Republicans have now turned to whipping up hate mobs against a handful of U.S. Olympic athletes who’ve had the temerity to criticize the actions of their own government.
I feel fairly confident speculating that if the winter Olympics had taken place in February 2025 instead of February 2026, the athletes would not have spoken up, and if they had spoken up, the right-wing browbeating would have had its intended effect. A year ago, these athletes might actually have been sent home.
But today, nobody outside of MAGA is prepared to join that pile on.
It took longer than it should have, but after a year it’s dawned on most people that the MAGA proposition wasn’t Free Speech For All—Even If It’s Racist. It’s more like Know Your Place.
Now the people responsible for most cultural production in America—artists and athletes and major brands—feel on solid ground saying simple things like, “the people in charge of the U.S. government are doing some bad things, like depriving people of their rights,” and MAGA’s only response is, “THOUGHT CRIME! We call for depriving you of your rights.”
Outside the bubble, we are not impressed.
Your 2025 predictions stated this about the administration
“…. because their added increments of preparedness will be swamped by
their much greater arrogance, leading them to shed guardrails, fall into obvious traps, and overreach.”
Today’s post is confirmation.
Boy, did I love reading this. It gives me a lot of hope to see young people expressing their love for their communities and their heritage, and each other, with art being the catalyst. Stop teaching art? Stop teaching music? NEVER. Also, it gives me joy to see these twisted, vile haters losing their “culture war.” I’ve said this a million times, but there are more of us than there are of them. Sooner or later, The People will win.